Chapter 122: Before Floor 9

My family wanted to know exactly how I’d managed to defeat the boss.

Anyone could understand how absurdly impossible it was to defeat a boss at the same level while most of your abilities were sealed, whether they were a Climber or not.

“I’ve got powers besides skills and items that I can use. I told you, didn’t I? I’ve gotten plenty of good rewards.”

Explaining the Demon King would have been too complicated.

So I left it at that.

Whenever I was with my family, I made a point of exaggerating how strong and exceptional I was, always putting on an air of absolute confidence.

It was the only way to put their minds even slightly at ease.

Either way, they all seemed relieved simply because I had returned safely.

And with that, the Proof of Qualification came to an end.

The world regained its peace.

“Hah...”

For me, of course, there was no such thing as peace.

All I could do was keep moving forward.

‘I still have to tell them I’ll be challenging Floor 9 soon.’

How often should I challenge the Tower from now on?

For the moment, once every three days at the earliest.

That was because the cooldown on my newly acquired skill, Radiant Incarnation, was seventy-two hours.

A skill that gave me ten minutes of light-speed movement and invincibility.

It was my new trump card.

As I wondered what kind of theme Floor 9 might have...

I decided to finish my Floor 8 strategy guide first.

[You have entered Nightmare Difficulty Floor 8.]

A desert.

After smashing my way through the sandworms and reaching the skeletal corpse, I grabbed the Compass.

[1]

The moment I saw the number displayed on it, I clicked my tongue.

‘This piece of crap.’

If I’d managed to shave off just a few more minutes, I never would have had to dip into my own lifespan.

I headed underground through a sandworm burrow and began searching for the route.

Eventually, I reached the cavern containing the puzzle.

Just like before, I froze all the holes the sandworms burst out of, then completed the puzzle faster than I had last time.

I stopped time and memorized the puzzle maze all over again, and...

Rrrrrumble-

The moment I released Time Stop, a massive tremor swept through the cavern.

This time, instead of escaping outside, I stayed where I was and waited.

Crash!

Before long, the entire cavern flipped over.

For an instant, my body floated in midair.

Then I fell.

I activated Skin Hardening.

I plunged downward for quite some time, tumbling among chunks of rock and debris before finally crashing onto solid ground.

Was this the inside of the Antlion boss’s stomach?

Slick walls of flesh coated in mucus surrounded me on every side, writhing and pulsing grotesquely.

Tiny specks embedded throughout the flesh, resembling glow-stones, cast a dim light over the space.

I looked around and spotted a passage.

Aside from the chamber I had fallen into, there was only one way forward.

I headed in that direction, and one tangled pathway after another unfolded before me.

A grotesque labyrinth made entirely of flesh.

Now all I had to do was follow the route I had memorized.

When I cleared this floor the first time, I had been pressed for time and used the Demon King’s power to kill the boss directly, but this was clearly the intended route.

Left, left, right, straight ahead, then the second left, then straight again...

I made my way through the maze until I reached my destination.

Thud- Thud-

A gigantic beating heart came into view.

Without hesitation, I fired a fully charged Destruction Ray.

The Destruction Ray punched straight through the boss’s heart.

Kweeeeeeegh...

A horrific shriek rang out, followed by a massive tremor that continued for several moments before finally subsiding.

Was it dead?

[0/32,768km]

When I checked the Compass, a unit had appeared beside the number.

I retraced my steps through the maze.

After returning to the starting point, I climbed back out through the passage that had swallowed me earlier, and...

The Antlion boss lay dead, its enormous tongue hanging limply from its mouth.

Kill it this way, reach the Oasis, and the ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) floor would be cleared.

It had taken roughly thirty minutes.

I didn’t bother going all the way to the end and simply left the floor.

Then I began writing the strategy guide, repeatedly entering and leaving Floor 8 to check whatever details I needed.

There weren’t any monsters on Floor 8 that were particularly difficult to handle.

For the other Nightmare clearers, the biggest issue would simply be cutting down their clear time as much as possible...

Something in the twenty-minute range should definitely be achievable, shouldn’t it?

Of course, it wouldn’t be easy.

They could memorize both the puzzle and the maze using the information I provided, but they would still have to deal with the sandworms interfering while they assembled the puzzle.

Even so, I thought it was less brutal than Floor 7.

Were the US and China actually planning to challenge Floor 7?

[Squirrel: This is Taylor Miller, the United States’ Nightmare Climber. I was grateful for your dedication, Person123. And I admired you.

I’m leaving you a Whisper for the first and last time before I enter Floor 7. I truly hope you clear Floor 8, come back out, and see this message.]

Come to think of it, the US Nightmare clearer had sent me a Whisper like this as well.

It looked like she had sent it while my Floor 8 clear was dragging on.

The member count in the Nightmare Communication Channel hadn’t gone down, so thankfully, it seemed she hadn’t entered yet.

Whenever I had advised the US on strategy before, I had always communicated through Rhino, so I had never actually exchanged Whispers directly with the US Nightmare clearer until now.

‘Taylor Miller...’

She really was something.

People who staked their own lives to climb the Tower for the sake of the world.

After everything that had happened with the Isolation Zones, the weight of that fact struck me more deeply than before.

I sent her a somewhat belated reply, then finished writing the Floor 8 strategy guide.

***

After the Isolation Zone incident ended, the Top-Floor Climbers of each difficulty found themselves unable to escape public condemnation.

[Elizabeth: They’re just shameless bastards with zero conscience. All three of them]

[Ant: Tens of millions of lives on the line and they just go and pick zero to save their own skins lmaooooo]

[Vodka: Honestly embarrassing that trash like that represents each difficulty]

[Coin: That Dmitri guy used to go around saying he’d be like the Person123 of Hard difficulty or whatever. What an absolute load of garbage]

[Wizard: lol someone tell him to at least try to be worth the dirt under Person123’s toenail]

Of course, even among those cursing and ridiculing them, how many would actually have been willing to stake their own lives if placed in the same situation?

Regardless, the Top-Floor Climbers were keeping their heads down and lying low.

Gabriel, the top Normal Climber, even stepped down from his position as director of the Climber Association.

In any case, the Isolation Zone incident had once again driven home the difference between Person123 and the other Climbers.

It wasn’t merely a difference in ability.

It was a more fundamental difference in caliber.

“How on earth did Person123 defeat the boss while carrying nine Penalties?”

“Maybe there’s some third factor besides skills and items that hasn’t been revealed yet. Something among the Nightmare difficulty rewards...”

People were endlessly speculating about how Person123 had managed to withstand nine Penalties.

Some argued that there had to be a special reward unique to Nightmare difficulty.

Others went so far as to speculate that Person123 wasn’t human at all, but genuinely some sort of divine being.

The Person123 Church, in particular, pushed that theory relentlessly.

Since Person123 himself never confirmed or denied anything, no one could know the truth.

[Tree: I was a forever-Floor-2 climber and I just cleared all the way to Floor 4 today]

[Doberman: I’m finally setting foot on Floor 5 too lol from now on you Floor 5-and-under peasants don’t even try talking to me]

[Durandal: Maybe I’ll give it a shot too...? Still kinda nervous though]

[Milky Way: What’s there to be nervous about. Just watch the Floor 2 platforms a bit and it’s a straight shot to Floor 4]

[Superhuman: Easy is seriously nothing. Why are you even a climber if you can’t do this much lol]

[Jet: Alright, shall we all hold a service for Person123, who blessed us with 2 Levels?]

[Cerberus: I just worship and worship. The greatest GOAT in human history]

And with Person123 having chosen the 2 Levels Special Reward...

Easy and Normal difficulty Climbers, in particular, went wild.

Two levels on Easy and Normal amounted to the rewards from one or two entire floors.

With that much of a boost to their physical abilities, there was virtually no way they could fail to clear the relatively easy lower floors unless they were truly hopeless.

Of course, since the reward only applied to Climbers who had already reached Floor 2 or higher, not every Climber received two levels.

Even so, it was reasonable to expect the climbing pace of the other difficulties to accelerate considerably from this point onward.

[Person123: Here’s the strategy info for Nightmare Floor 8.]

Amid all of that, the Floor 8 strategy guide was uploaded as well.

The Compass and the puzzle.

The Antlion boss.

The maze.

The Oasis distance doubling every two minutes.

Everything.

Only then did people understand why clearing Floor 8 had taken so long.

[Owner: It was a cube on Floor 3 and now a puzzle pops up, yikes]

[Boatman: Ugh, the difficulty makes me want to puke just looking at it...]

[Lovelon: Doubling every two minutes means even after just an hour the distance is insane? It’s over a billion kilometers]

[Blue: A billion, holy shit lmaooooo is this interstellar travel]

[Crane: How many kilometers did Person123 travel? He didn’t tell us that part]

[Pegasus: Still, I bet he cut it under forty minutes. Past that the number stops making sense]

[Atrocity: A 100-piece puzzle plus a maze that looks insanely complicated from the explanation... if he cut that under forty minutes on his first try, he’s seriously beyond human]

Sure enough, faced with such a nightmarish clear condition, people eagerly filled the channels with discussion.

“Taylor, did something good happen?”

Max had stopped by the training ground and found Taylor smiling as she looked at her Communication Channel.

Taylor turned toward him.

“No. It’s nothing.”

“Did you see the Floor 8 strategy guide? If we prepare properly, the conditions at least look better than Floor 7.”

Taylor nodded.

“We still have to clear Floor 7 first.”

Max spoke with concern in his voice.

“You mustn’t rush, Taylor. They say DARPA is still researching the training system even now...”

“Yes. I have no intention of rushing. We need to raise the odds of success, even if it’s only by a fraction.”

After finishing her conversation with Max, Taylor checked the Whisper in her Communication Channel once again.

[Person123: Thank you. I’m glad you seem to be safe.]

A Whisper from Person123.

It was a reply to the message she had sent shortly before she was supposed to enter Floor 7.

Was warmth in her chest the right way to describe it?

Receiving a reply like this from him left her with a strange feeling.

One thing was certain.

It had given her strength.

Taylor resumed her training.

So that she could be even the slightest bit more useful on the path he was walking ahead of them.

***

Several more days passed after the Isolation Zone incident came to an end.

The cooldown on Radiant Incarnation had completely reset.

I was slowly getting ready to enter Floor 9.

But first, I had to tell them.

My family.

I had to tell them that from now on, I would need to climb the Tower much more frequently.

I couldn’t keep entering without saying a word anymore.

“From now on, I’ll have to clear a floor every three or four days.”

At my words, my family looked as though they had been struck by a bolt from the blue.

“...What do you mean?”

I couldn’t tell them about the lifespan issue.

And saying I had to clear floors early in case they dragged on like Floor 8 would have been far too flimsy an excuse.

There was no way they would simply accept, “I’m going to clear a floor every few days,” without an explanation either.

So I decided to invent a new excuse.

“The truth is, I made a separate contract with the Tower.”

I told them that when it looked as though I wouldn’t be able to clear Floor 8 within the Time Limit, I had made a separate contract with the Tower.

In exchange for receiving what I needed to clear Floor 8, I had accepted a Penalty that required me to clear at least one floor every week from now on.

If I failed to do so, I would die.

The fact that the Tower made proposals specifically to me was already known throughout the world, so the story wasn’t particularly implausible.

Honestly, was this really all that different from being diagnosed with a terminal illness...?

Still, all things considered, I thought this was the better option.

“You really don’t need to worry that much. The Tower makes me proposals all the time, right? If I keep climbing, I’m sure I’ll find some way to cancel this too... Hm? Please don’t cry.”

Mom ended up crying again.

My sister did too.

There really was no greater act of ingratitude than making your family worry like this.

But what else could I do?

Once they had finally calmed down, Father spoke.

“Promise me one thing, Seo-hyeon. Never enter without telling your family. Never.”

I promised him I wouldn’t.

That was the whole reason I had brought it up in the first place.

‘A way to extend my lifespan...’

Maybe something like that really would appear among the rewards on the upper floors.

Or perhaps another Special Reward would offer something useful, just as it had during the Isolation Zone incident.

Special Rewards seemed capable of producing all kinds of unusual things.

I had told Bilon about my situation as well.

With Bilon, I figured it would probably be fine to tell the complete truth...

But for now, I gave Bilon more or less the same explanation I had given my family.

[Chicken Sandwich: Good heavens...]

Bilon seemed quite shocked, but even so, he took the news calmly.

With all my preparations finally complete...

“I’ll be off, then.”

I embraced my family in the living room.

There was at least one good thing about having told them the truth—or something close enough to it.

I could receive a proper send-off from my family like this.

“Take care. Be careful.”

“Go get ’em, big bro!”

I could tell my family were doing their best to keep bright expressions on their faces as they saw me off.

I smiled as well and waved.

“I’ll clear it nice and easy before lunch and be back.”

Come to think of it, was the Tower not going to make me a proposal this time?

Well, the item ban on Floor 8 had ultimately been aimed at the Scales of Life anyway.

Whatever proposal the Tower might make now, I had almost no intention of accepting it.

No proposal came.

Not even by the time I was ready to enter.

[Will you enter Nightmare Difficulty Floor 9?]

Alright...

Shall we?

The moment I entered, my vision shifted.